Let's empower the deaf: Soeharto
Let's empower the deaf: Soeharto
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto urged the nation yesterday to
empower deaf people by assisting them into gainful employment and
turning them into productive citizens.
The huge cost of educating the deaf would be wasted unless
society put them to work, Soeharto said as he opened the first
joint congress of Total Communication Indonesia and the Forum of
Communication for the Deaf at the State Palace.
His speech was communicated to congress participants by
assistants using sign language.
Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said in
his address that of the 41,015 physically disabled children
currently being educated in special schools, 4,027 are deaf.
The Ministry of Social Services has estimated the number of
deaf people at around 600,000.
Soeharto said that because physically disabled people are
spread across the archipelago, the costs incurred in providing
them with education and turning them into productive citizens are
huge.
Because the government's own resources are limited, society is
expected to take the initiative, he said.
The President acknowledged the initiatives of both the
institute and the forum in drawing up a standard sign language
and opening a job agency for the deaf.
He called on the deaf to keep up their spirits and to never
lose self confidence. "As citizens, you have equal rights and you
have the same obligations as other citizens in this country to
build the country that we all love," he said.
"You may be physically disabled, but you are not spiritually
disabled. This is the chief asset in facing life," he said.
The House of Representatives is currently deliberating a
government drafted bill that deals with the rights and
obligations of disabled people. The bill makes it a crime for an
employer to reject a person on the basis of the individual's
physical disability.
The bill however has been criticized by disabled people as
falling short of ensuring their full rights, particularly
political rights, as citizens. (ste)